Overrated

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

His man Godfrey gets a wife and a cook on thus amusing screwball comedy where a wealthy automobile industrialist takes on a butler position with a stranger he met in the park posing His wife, a cook. She has no idea who he really is, while their rather eccentric boss didn't have a clue that he was a being had. All it took was Jean Arthur, as the cooking candidate, to waft a clove of garlic over a pot of sauce rather than drop the whole thing in. Herbert Marshall is the deadpan millionaire posing as a butler, while Leo Carrillo is the rather crass employer with a dubious career and gravel voiced Lionel Stander as his sour assistant.A year before the release of "My Man Godfrey", society got a poke in the nose with this dry screwball comedy which, while not quite a classic, is amusing extremely amusing. Carrillo, an underrated comic, steals every scene just by destroying every English word he speaks. Stander um is also dreadfully funny, filled with acid wit that brings on hysterics just by dropping an ordinary line. Frieda Ibescort is imperious as Marshall's nasty fiancé.Typical but well written and superbly acted, this is formula fluff that Stoll has enough surprises along the way to keep it fresh. Arthur gives the impression that she may know Marshall's true identity. Stander gets to follow Marshall around, giving some mistaken confusion to the busy plot. This isn't earth shaking, but has many fun moments that makes it quite delicious.

Herbert Marshall is quite charming as an automobile tycoon who chances upon unemployed, nearly-homeless Jean Arthur in the park; he conceals his true identity and helps land a cook-and-butler job for them both at the home of a wealthy racketeer, but his impending marriage to a society girl might put an end to the charade. Silly fluff, but put over with so much professionalism that one isn't apt to complain too loudly. Arthur creates a likable character and has some very cute scenes (especially her cooking audition with the garlic), while her conversation with Marshall early on about "two hundred people for every one job" is remarkably relevant in the 21st century. The premise is thin, with the stretch marks extremely apparent in the final tug, yet there are still enough big laughs here to satisfy fans of nutty 1930s comedies. **1/2 from ****

As much as I want to like anything Jean Arthur is in, I have to admit that "If You Could Only Cook" is a rather drab attempt at a screwball comedy.Arthur and Herbert Marshall play an out-of-work girl and an auto executive, respectively, who pose as husband and wife in order to take a job as cook and butler in the home of a gangster (Leo Carillo). You might think this sets the stage for all manner of screwball antics, but no such antics ever really arise. The film treats the story lazily and perfunctorily. Arthur and Marshall of course fall in love, but more because the screenplay forces them to than because it seems natural for their characters. The two actors acquit themselves as well as they can, but the movie just sort of plods along around them.Fans of either Arthur or Marshall will probably want to give this film a look, but don't expect a screwball classic.Grade: B-

The Austin Film Society showed this entertaining old film last week on election night. The receptive audience found laughs in many lines that still seem current, especially about unemployment, the want ads and being broke.Jean Arthur looked lovely in this movie, and Herbert Marshall was perfect. What a wonderful voice that man had! My husband thinks that his walk may have inspired C3PO's formal motions, although the robot had a metal leg, not a wooden one like Mr. Marshall's.Lionel Stander was already in full bellow, many decades before 'Hart to Hart', and Leo Carillo was a treat as the gangster employer. It was a surprise to hear them use the term 'wise guy' for a prospective member - I didn't realize it was already being used back then.